


Such a Beautiful Thing

by eerian_sadow



Series: Avalon [14]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Emotional Trauma, M/M, Multi, Murder, Recovery, Shock, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-10-11
Updated: 2010-12-08
Packaged: 2018-04-02 09:18:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4054702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First, there was a sweets shop in Gygax. Then the war. Then, more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Promises

**Author's Note:**

> written for [](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/profile)[houndxmirage](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/)'s [Three's A Charm Challenge](http://community.livejournal.com/houndxmirage/29665.html). thanks to [](http://flybystardancer.livejournal.com/profile)[flybystardancer](http://flybystardancer.livejournal.com/) for the beta work.

Title: Such a Beautiful Thing: Promises (1/12)  
Universe: G1, Avalon AU  
Characters: Hound, Mirage  
Rating: G  
Warnings: none  
Notes: written for [](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/profile)[**houndxmirage**](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/) 's [Three's A Charm Challenge](http://community.livejournal.com/houndxmirage/29665.html). thanks to [](http://flybystardancer.livejournal.com/profile)[**flybystardancer**](http://flybystardancer.livejournal.com/) for the beta work.

  
They met by accident.

Mirage was a high class, well crafted towers mech and Hound was almost as low class as a mech could get without living on the streets. They had nothing in common at all, and would probably have gone through all their existence without knowing each other except for a chance meeting in a confectioner’s shop.

Hound was filthy when he walked into the confectioner’s shop—not an uncommon state for him, but after his utterly disastrous guided tour through the wildlife refuge he looked much worse than normal. He wanted to do nothing more than go home, shower and recharge for the next two cycles but he had to pick up the energon treats he had commissioned for his carrier’s sparkday celebration first. He was so tired that he almost didn’t notice the shop’s other patron as he trudged up to the counter.

If he hadn’t looked so terrible, the blue and white mech might not have noticed him, either. “I find it difficult to believe that any mech would willingly be seen in public like that.”

It took Hound several clicks to realize the mech—the absolutely pristine and gleamingly polished mech—was speaking to him. “I’m sorry?”

“You,” the slender mech said, flicking a hand toward the oil and energon coating his frame. “How can you be willing to be seen like that? It’s disgusting.”

The guide looked down at himself, then shrugged. “Some of us have to get dirty for a living.”

The blue and white mech gave him a thoughtful look, but was prevented from replying by the shop’s owner coming into the main room.

“Goodness, Hound! What happened to you?”

He gave the femme a rueful smile. “Some noblemech thought he knew more about cybercats than I do. He’ll probably be out of the repair bay the cycle after next.”

The proprietor shook her head. “He’s fortunate that he had you as a guide. Some of the others wouldn’t have been able to get him out and keep him online. Are you here for the confections for your carrier’s party?”

“Yeah. Just stopping by on my way home. I probably won’t have time next cycle.”

“Of course. I’ll fetch them in just a moment.” She handed the blue and white mech a neatly wrapped box of treats. “Here you are. Thank you for your patience.”

“Thank you. I’m certain they’ll be up to your usual standards, so the wait is worth it.” The slender mech gave her a smile.

“Flatterer.” The shop owner returned his smile before turning to the door to her back room. “I’ll be right back Hound.”

“Sure.” The guide resisted the urge to lean against the counter, not wanting the proprietor to have to clean it off after he left. After a moment, he realized the blue and white mech was still standing next to him and giving him an appraising look. “Can I help you?”

The other mech shook his head. “You already have. I heard about Darkstreak’s accident from my carrier just before I came into the shop. She had nothing but praise for the guide who rescued him.”

“Oh, Primus.” The other mech had looked well-kept but not _that_ well-kept. “Look, I didn’t mean to be insulting to your friend—“

“Oh, he’s not my friend. My carrier’s friend, certainly, but not mine.” The blue and white mech gave him a smile. “My opinion of him is much the same as yours, I think. But I am grateful for your bravery; not many mechs would put themselves at such risk for someone like him.”

Hound wanted to make a flippant remark, but he kept it to himself. Getting his clients killed didn’t get him jobs, but neither did making nobles angry. “You’re welcome. I would have done it for anyone, though.”

“That’s good to know.” The noble gave him another of those charming smiles. “Perhaps we’ll meet again in the future, then.”

The guide knew he was staring as the noble left the shop, but he couldn’t help himself. A fine looking mech had just potentially offered him a job; perhaps today hadn’t been as bad as he thought.

please clicky!

[](http://dragcave.net/view/Dg0B) [](http://dragcave.net/view/JdHq) [](http://dragcave.net/view/LRVe) [](http://dragcave.net/view/gXYB)   
[](http://gpxpl.us/wamqD) [](http://gpxpl.us/BuADD) [](http://gpxpl.us/VwKDD) [](http://gpxpl.us/kgEDD) [](http://gpxpl.us/WGnDD)


	2. Savior

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> written for [](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/profile)[houndxmirage](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/)'s [Three's A Charm Challenge](http://community.livejournal.com/houndxmirage/29665.html). thanks to [](http://minibot-love.livejournal.com/profile)[minibot_love](http://minibot-love.livejournal.com/) for the beta work.

Title: Such a Beautiful Thing: Savior (2/12)  
Universe: G1, Avalon AU  
Characters: Hound, Mirage  
Rating: G  
Warnings: none  
Notes: written for [](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/profile)[**houndxmirage**](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/) 's [Three's A Charm Challenge](http://community.livejournal.com/houndxmirage/29665.html). thanks to [](http://minibot-love.livejournal.com/profile)[**minibot_love**](http://minibot-love.livejournal.com/) for the beta work.

The Towers were falling.

The attack had been largely unexpected, though hardly unprovoked. The nobility had spent its time looking down on the revolutionaries, mocking them and their goals or discounting them altogether. It had been almost inevitable that the Decepticons—a most fitting title, in the end—decide to take down the most visible symbol of the division between the classes and eliminate their loudest opponents in one strike.

The nobles had never had a chance.

Crystal shards rained down around the hiding place Mirage and Mirrorcloak had ducked into. They were both battered and bleeding energon from damaged lines, but they were still functional. If they could just stay hidden until the battle was over, they stood a chance of surviving this massacre. Mirage held Mirrorcloak tightly and prayed that neither of them would make a sound that would betray their presence.

Regrets ran through his processor as they hid, in a litany of things he should have done differently. He should have defied his progenitor and gone to the military academy. He shouldn’t have agreed to the bond-promise with a femme he didn’t even like, let alone love. He should have gone on the tour of Cybertron when his old tutor offered to take him. He should have gone back to the confectioner’s shop to find that guide again.

It was strange how, even as his family and acquaintances were being deactivated around him, he fixated on that last idea. The guide hadn’t been a truly attractive mech, though he had a rugged charm and kind optics. They hadn’t even really spoken to each other or even exchanged names. Yet somehow, not meeting the mech again was somehow one of his greatest regrets.

“Oh, Primus, they’re coming!” Mirrorcloak hissed, breaking him out of his thoughts. “They’re going to see us and—”

“Hush!” Mirage did his best to keep his tone soft and still quiet the frantic femme.

Despite his effort, the Decepticons still stopped directly in front of their hiding place. With a sinking spark, Mirage counted four sets of legs. All of them were heavily armored and one mech had a rifle in a holster along one leg. Even if that was the only weapon between them—unlikely as that scenario was—it would be more than enough to pierce their more delicate armor and deactivate them.

“Did any of you hear that?” The question reinforced the idea that they would not be escaping.

“I did!” The second Decepticon sounded far too excited. Mirrorcloak whimpered and clung to Mirage more tightly.

“Quiet, both of you!” The third Decepticon’s voice was commanding. Most likely the leader, though that knowledge probably wouldn’t help them. “Brawl, Blast Off, find her.”

“Can we keep her?” the second Decepticon asked as two of the larger mechs moved toward their hiding place. “I’ve always wanted a little femme to keep chained to the foot of my berth.”

“Shut up, Vortex,” the leader snapped. “Megatron said no survivors. And nobody else cares about your sick fantasies.”

When she heard the exchange, Mirrorcloak clawed her way out of Mirage’s arms and launched herself out of their hiding place. It was all the blue and white mech could do not to go after her and pull her back. If they didn’t know about him, remaining hidden would be the only way he would make it out. He ached to know that Mirrorcloak’s panic prevented her from doing the same.

He watched in horror as she ran into the waiting arms of the largest of the Decepticons.

“Well, that was too easy.” The Decepticon’s voice was far too calm for the situation, lacking almost any inflection at all. It was almost as chilling as the other mech’s excitement. “How disappointing.”

“Quit complaining and take care of her.” The leader sounded like he was losing patience. “We’re not being paid to have fun out here.”

“Aww, can’t we play with her for just a little while?” Mirrorcloak screamed at Vortex’s words and he cackled at her reaction. “This one would be so much fun!”

“No.” The command was very final, and Mirage was strangely grateful that Mirrorcloak wouldn’t be subjected to whatever plans Vortex had for her. “Blast Off, take care of her. Brawl, see if she has any friends in there. Vortex, do something useful for a change and fly recon.”

The energon froze in Mirage’s lines as Brawl moved closer to his hiding place. As soon as the larger mech bent down, everything would be over. He offlined his optics, unwilling to see his deactivation coming.

“Nobody here, boss.” Brawl’s words were shocking enough that Mirage almost brought his optics back online. Primus had obviously granted him some sort of mercy and he was unwilling to allow a physical reaction to undo it.

“All right. Let’s get moving. Megatron’s calling for reinforcements on the southern edge of the city.”

There was a clatter of metal hitting the ground—what was left of Mirrorcloak, most likely—and the sound of heavy feet walking away. Mirage stayed still and silent, thanking Primus for his salvation. Even after the sounds of the Decepticon’s footsteps had been drowned out by obvious combat, he didn’t move.

“It’s all right, you can come out now.” The voice was kind and naggingly familiar. Mirage brought his optics back online and saw the guide he had met in the confectioner’s shop looking back at him. “Are you hurt?”

For a brief moment, everything that had just happened was blocked out. “I remember you!”

The guide looked at him in concern. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” Carefully, Mirage crawled out of his hiding place. “I’m fine now.”

“Then let’s get out of here. I’m not armed enough to take on any Decepticons right now.”

Mirage nodded. This was not how he had expected to ever meet this mech again, but the universe worked in strange ways. He would not take it for granted again.

The last of the colors faded from Mirrorcloak’s plating as he followed his guide out of the ruins.

 

 

[](http://gpxpl.us/wamqD) [](http://gpxpl.us/VdEDD) [](http://gpxpl.us/VVCDD) [](http://gpxpl.us/DwxDD) [](http://gpxpl.us/CbOVD)


	3. Communication Error

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this… was not exactly the piece I had intended to write. I’ve gone back and re-read and attempted to expand and tweak more than a dozen times, and yet it still ends right where it did. Everything else that I tried to add felt forced, didn’t flow and was really hard to go back and read. So, you get this and the possibility of one more chapter—though I promise nothing.

Title: Such A Beautiful Thing: Communication Error  
Universe: G1, Avalon AU  
Rating: PG13  
Characters: Hound, Mirage, Ratchet  
Warnings: mention of suicidal thoughts, mention of character deaths  
Notes: this… was not exactly the piece I had intended to write. I’ve gone back and re-read and attempted to expand and tweak more than a dozen times, and yet it still ends right where it did. Everything else that I tried to add felt forced, didn’t flow and was really hard to go back and read. So, you get this and the possibility of one more chapter—though I promise nothing.

Also, to the comfort of a couple of my readers, I did go back and tweak the last installment, though that won’t show up anywhere until I upload the series at transfictions.net.

Written for the [](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/profile)[**houndxmirage**](http://houndxmirage.livejournal.com/) Three's A Charm Challenge.

 

“He’s asking about you again.” Ratchet slumped against the table across from Hound after he sat, weariness evident on every bit of his frame. “You really ought to go in. Emdee and I both think it will help him.”

“I want to, Ratch.” Hound fidgeted with his ration. “But you didn’t see him out there. It was… He scared me. _No one_ should be that unaffected by that sort of thing.”

“Well, he’s sure as slag not unaffected now.” The medic reached out and stole the energon ration out of Hound’s hand. “And if you’re not drinking this, I will.”

“Go ahead.” Hound made a dismissive gesture with one hand. He didn’t want it anyway, now that Ratchet had brought up the topic of the noble again. “I just… I really don’t think I can go in there and see him again. He didn’t even care what had happened to that femme he was with. He was just so focused on me. It made my plating want to crawl off.”

“Hound, did it ever occur to you that he might be in shock?” Ratchet took a drink of the energon, and then continued. “Everyone and everything he had ever known had just been destroyed. He was surrounded by a literally shattered city and had to listen to a group of mechs discuss his deactivation and the deactivation of his spark-cousin. In all of that mess, the only positive thing he had to focus on was you, so of course he was going to do it. How else could he have survived that?”

“I… don’t know.” He hadn’t ever thought of it like that. The guide-turned-tracker had simply assumed that the noble’s reaction was some sort of madness from a broken bond, but if the femme had been his spark-cousin and not a bondmate like he had assumed, that wouldn’t be the case at all.

“Hound, I know that you and Trailbreaker escaped Gygax together when it fell, so you weren’t affected the same way.” The medic abandoned his energon for a moment to reach across the table and take Hound’s hands imploringly. “But this mech has no friends and no family left alive. He positively identified half the bodies in my medbay before he would let us sedate him so that he could recharge. He’s utterly alone right now except for us. Please, help me to help him.”

Whether it had been his intention or not, Ratchet’s words forcefully reminded him of the devastated feeling he had drowned in for days after his home was destroyed. He wondered how much worse the experience would have been without his best friend. There was no way he could leave this other mech to try and deal with the devastation of his home on his own, not after Ratchet put it in perspective like that.

“All right, Ratchet. I’ll go.” Hound extracted his hands from the medic’s and stood.

Ratchet looked intensely relieved. “Thank you.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“I’m glad you were finally able to come down,” Emdee said with a small, sad smile. “I really think it will be beneficial to his healing processes for you to visit him. Right now he needs any familiar face he can find.”

“We aren’t friends,” Hound replied softly. “I don’t even know his designation.”

The femme frowned. “You don’t? Then why does he speak of you so fondly?”

“I don’t know!” The tracker tried not to take his confusion and frustration with the situation out on the medic, but it was difficult at best. “I just don’t know. I’m pretty sure I never even took this mech through one of the parks. There’s no reason for him to be so fixated on me.”

Emdee’s frown turned thoughtful. “He must have just chosen you as a comfort object, then. It’s not uncommon in patients with a severely traumatic experience like this.”

“Just what I wanted to be. The comfort toy for a grown mech.” He shook his head. “But I told Ratchet I’d help, so let’s get this over with.”

“He’s in the back room,” Emdee told him. “The one that’s supposed to be Ratchet’s office.”

“Thanks.” Trying to steel himself for anything, Hound turned toward the back of the medbay.

“And Hound? See if you can get him to tell you his name.” When he turned back to look at the femme in confusion, she gave him a shrug. “Nothing any of us have tried will get him to tell us.”

“Right.” At her words, he realized that he wasn’t sure he could be ready for any of this.  


 

 

 

[](http://gpxpl.us/crvzD) [](http://gpxpl.us/kXSHD) [](http://gpxpl.us/oiFzD) [](http://gpxpl.us/NTLzD) [](http://gpxpl.us/olzzD) [](http://gpxpl.us/SmRzD)


	4. 20/20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It never ceases to amaze me when this AU demands that I bring back characters I had planned on being throw away, give them names and actually use them. It’s done it to me again this chapter, resurrecting the confectioner from part one of this arc and making her more important than I had ever intended.

Title: Such A Beautiful Thing: 20/20  
Universe: G1, Avalon AU  
Rating: PG13  
Characters: Hound, Mirage, Ratchet  
Warnings: none  
Notes: It never ceases to amaze me when this AU demands that I bring back characters I had planned on being throw away, give them names and actually use them. It’s done it to me again this chapter, resurrecting the confectioner from part one of this arc and making her more important than I had ever intended.

My apologies for this chapter taking so long to write. Between all the hell I was going through in Texas and then getting sick once I got back to Kansas, it just wasn’t coming out. But here it is, and still in time for the Three’s a Charm Challenge.

In hindsight, he’d almost certainly made an aft of himself.

The moment Hound had walked through the door, he had pounced on him like a gyrofalcon and refused to let go. He had babbled on about what had happened and how grateful he was to have been rescued by Hound. He’d wailed and cried out his losses into the green mech’s chest plates. He had fallen into recharge with his head pillowed on Hound’s shoulder. When he had come back online several groons later, he had kissed Hound on the cheek plate and thanked him softly.

Hound had reacted as if he had been slapped. Mirage found himself dumped unceremoniously onto the floor. The green mech fled the room and the noble sat on the floor, curled in on himself. It was several groons before he figured out what he had done wrong—or at least what he thought he had done wrong—but the damage was already done.

A simple kiss like that was an almost meaningless gesture in the Towers, given or exchanged the way other mechs traded hand clasps or bows. It was a significant gesture to other Cybertronians, though.

Mirage dropped his head so that it rested on his knees, defeated. He had overstepped himself and it had possibly cost him the only familiar thing left to him on the planet.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

In hindsight, he’d probably made an aft of himself.

Hound had walked into the room the noble had been given like a mech walking to his execution, his discomfort with the other mech’s behavior making the action harder than it should have been. He had barely spoken as the noble poured out his story, though his spark had ached at the utter loss in the blue mech’s voice. He had barely even managed to hold the other mech as he grieved and had only stayed through his recharge because he was far more afraid of making the medical team angry than he was of a crazy noblemech.

But when the mech had kissed him, that had just been too much. He had done what Ratchet had asked and more, and he just couldn’t take anything else.

It didn’t occur to him until later, after Trailbreaker had held him through his own fit of sorrow and shakes, that the noble had kissed him on the cheek plate—something he knew was a casual gesture among Towers nobles.

He sat in his quarters for a long time, trying to come up with a way to apologize.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Once they had let him out of the back room—sometime after the bodies had been removed from the medbay, he’d noticed—Mirage became a common sight in the medbay’s main rooms. He didn’t have any medical programming or training, but he didn’t need that to move from room to room and comfort the other survivors or to hand out energon rations.

He sat with Emdee and talked as often as she had time for. Her wisdom and specialized training soothed him in ways he hadn’t known were possible. After a few cycles, he actually started feeling… not better, but much less as if he would rather deactivate than keep going after what had happened.

Optimus Prime had even come down and spent an entire cycle talking to the survivors. He was obviously young, possibly not any older than Mirage himself, but he was well spoken as he offered the nobles a place among the Autobots and caring when he offered to assist them in finding shelter in the remaining neutral cities when most of them declined the offer. He was the sort of leader Mirage could easily learn to like.

It hadn’t been hard at all for him to accept the Prime’s offer of placement in the army.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The tracker had tried desperately to think of a way he could make amends with the noble for cycles before he remembered how, and more importantly where, he had met the blue mech before. The noble had been slumming at his favorite confectioner’s shop and seemed to have been a regular, based on his comments to the owner.

With a relieved smile, he made his way down to the supply master. It was a job no one had expected a confectioner to be good at, but Ambrosia had been a natural. Hound just hoped she had time to help him.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Ratchet was spraying on his Autobrand when Hound stepped into the medbay.

“If it’s not an emergency, I’ll be finished in a joor,” the medic said without looking up.

“It’s fine, Ratchet. I’m not hurt; I’m visiting.” Mirage didn’t miss the hopeful way Hound looked at him.

“Right.” Ratchet still didn’t look away from the detail work. “I’ll still be done in a joor.”

“That’s fine.”

Mirage studied the green mech while they waited. Hound looked hopeful, but he also looked nervous. Nervousness he could understand after their disastrous last meeting, but that look of hope didn’t make sense at all.

When he was finished, Ratchet stepped back and gave Mirage a stern look. “Don’t touch it for at least half a groon.” Then the medic turned that same stern look on Hound. “And don’t you do anything stupid.”

“No, sir!” Hound replied, shaking his head.

“Good. I’ll be in my office if you need me.” Ratchet picked up the paint sprayer and left the main room, leaving Mirage alone with Hound.

“You came back,” the noble said softly.

“Yeah.” Hound looked down at the floor for a moment before pulling something out of his subspace compartment. “I was an aft before. You were alone and scared and hurting and all I cared about was how uncomfortable it made me feel. It was cruel, and you didn’t deserve that.”

“Sometimes,” Mirage replied, “A mech needs to be shoved onto the floor before he can see reason. I was so far from myself before that it’s a wonder that you didn’t write me off for good.”

“Well, I was a scared mech who had just lost his home once too.” Hound held out a small box. “Forgive me for being terrible?”

Mirage took the box, feeling like a weight had been lifted from his spark. Hound didn’t hate him and hadn’t given up on him. He still had a chance to salvage something from the ruins of his infatuation with the guide he had met in the confection shop so many cycles ago. He gave the green mech a smile. “I forgive you. Can you forgive me for the way I treated you as well?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t.” Hound returned his smile, and then he extended a hand. “Hi, I’m Hound, former resident of Gygax and Autobot tracker.”

The noble set the box down and reached out to clasp Hound’s hand, recognizing the gesture for what it was: an offer to start over with none of the awkwardness remaining between them. “Hello. My designation is Mirage, formerly of the Towers and Autobot recruit.”  



End file.
